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I personally agree with the author that worthwhile contributors will not be stopped by the fact that the project is not on GitHub.

Why would you think worthwhile contributors are immune to being detracted by all the extra barriers?

Just my opinion based on my experience. "All the extra barriers" in this case being "learning how to send a patch over email".

I would argue that fewer of those "worthwhile contributors" will find the software to begin with when you reduce discoverability.